To achieve stereoscopic viewing of a picture or a photograph, it is known in the art to laminate a lenticular sheet, consisting of a plurality of semicylindrically shaped lenses, onto a picture or photograph so printed as to correspond with the left and right eyes. This is depicted in FIG. 22; that is, when a picture 2002, consisting of left-eye images A1, A2, . . . and right-eye images B1, B2, . . . printed in stripe patterns on a base sheet 2003, is viewed through the lenticular sheet 2001 laminated thereon, the images A1, A2, . . . are shown to the left eye and the images B1, B2, . . . shown to the right eye, thus achieving stereoscopic viewing.
Here, to achieve stereoscopic viewing with good precision, the left-eye images and right-eye images to be printed must be matched to the position of each lens of the lenticular sheet 2001. However, since the lenticular sheet 2001 is usually manufactured by thermoforming a vinyl chloride plate or the like, the width of each lens, the lens pitch, etc. change after the manufacture because of changes in temperature. Also, when printing a picture by a printer or other means, high printing precision is required.
A technique for solving the above problem is proposed, for example, in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 6-340099. According to this technique, when printing an image composed of stripes, the position of the lenticular sheet is detected by an optical method, and the image is printed based on the position being detected.
With this method, however, if the position of the lenticular sheet is displaced with respect to the print head position, or if the direction of placement is displaced, for example, by one lens pitch with respect to the direction of feeding, the position of the picture printed by the print head does not match the lens position of the lenticular sheet, that is, a registration error occurs between the lens and picture. In particular, if images are to be printed not only to present a picture for stereoscopic viewing but also to provide a sensation of motion using three or more pictures (see FIG. 23), the problem to be overcome is that the position and orientation of the lenticular sheet must be aligned with higher precision.
In view of the above-outlined problems with the prior known printed products such as a lenticular sheet, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image recording apparatus, an image data generating apparatus, and a recording method, which can improve the accuracy of print positions when printing a plurality of images in separate procedures.